Sunday, August 12, 2018

Seasons of War: Gallifrey has been on the market for just a little while, but we're already seeing positive comments and reviews from many of you! Thanks to everyone showing us your copies as they come in, and for letting us know what you think of our first book.

For interested readers — both current and potential — we thought we'd share a bit of the Q&A we sent around to our reviewers:

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What was it like collaborating with a second writer?KD: I’m used to collaborating because of my work in webcomics, and because I work with Ginger Hoesly (our cover artist) on a light novel series. Every collaboration is going to be different. Sometimes one of us does all the typing, sometimes we both do literal 50/50, sometimes it’s more like 100/100. The one constant in entering into a collaboration is that there are no constants!
Paul and I hashed things out a lot over Skype. There would be these long silences between the two of us as we both sat there trying to figure out what to do next, but I think we were on an equal footing across the board. At least in terms of mapping out this story, we were bordering on Drift Compatible quite a bit; we’d make the same decisions the other would have made, we had the same feelings about how it should end and how the characters should evolve, etc. Declan is amazing at matching up authors!

I also think we both worry that we’re each not doing our fair share! In the end, he’s handled a lot of the editing and formatting, and I’ve taken point on the digital side of things. And that’s a part of collaboration that people often forget: what happens once the story is done, and how you get it out there, is yet another facet of working together.

PD: This was a completely new experience for me and I’ve loved every minute of it. Kara and I had never worked together before and we really only knew each other in passing, but Declan knew exactly what he was doing when he allocated the various writers for the novels. We shared the same vision for the book right from the start and our personalities and writing strengths complement each other really well.
As we wrote our allocated chapters it was great to be able to bounce off ideas with each other, or share the odd lines of dialogue to see whether or not it worked. Other characters came out from the shadows as a result. They become far more important to the story then we’d initially imagined. Caelion and Bez being the perfect examples.

Is there any character you in particular associate with the most?KD: There’s this great anime creator named Leiji Matsumoto, and one of his most memorable series was this show Captain Harlock. The lead was this dashing space pirate, and his best friend was this
doofy little engineer named Tochiro. Matsumoto has said that Harlock is what he wishes he could be, and Tochiro is what he knows he is.

I think that’s what happened with me and Savalia and Kendo, respectively. Savalia is this really caring, really strong, really artistic and “together” person. But Kendo is much more what I really am from day to day, worrying what people think of her and making really horrible decisions and then having to deal with the fallout. There was this moment when I was working on Kendo’s chapters when my brain just went “I wonder what happens when someone with two hearts has a panic attack,” and there we are. Messed up a perfectly good Time Lord is what I did. Look at her, she’s got anxiety.

PD: I can see parts of me in all four of the lead characters: Mordicai’s social awkwardness and rebellious streak, Savalia’s conflict between wanting to be there for her family and wanting to escape into a world of pure imagination, Kendo’s feeling of being the odd-one-out, the one who needs to prove herself in a position of power, and Tor Fasa’s illogical blend of idealism and cynicism.

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The Q&A goes on in our reviewer packet. If you'd be interested in reviewing Seasons of War: Gallifrey for your podcast, blog, or website, get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter!

And remember, the book will only be on sale for a limited time... when they're gone, they're gone! So be sure to order yours while you can!

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About

Altrix Books is owned by Paul Driscoll and Kara Dennison. Their first book, Seasons of War: Gallifrey, raised More than $1,000 for charity. Altrix now specializes in both original and charity anthologies, and will soon be releasing the first line of their original series The Chronosmith Chronicles.